The Tata group has sought urgent intervention by the Centre to speed up clearances for its Rs 60,000 crore coal-to-liquid (CTL) joint venture with South Africa's Sasol group as part of the government's push to get investments that are stuck moving again.

The government had selected the Tata-Sasol joint venture in 2009 for one of two strategic investments worth Rs 1.4 lakh crore mooted to bolster India's energy security by using the technology that produces petroleum products from high-ash coal reserves.

The joint venture, Strategic Energy Technology Systems Private Ltd (SETSPL), has approached the Cabinet Committee on Investment as its plan to set up a 30 million tonne per year coal mine for a coal-to-liquid plant that can produce 80,000 barrels of petroleum products per day is still to get off the ground after five years.

The Odisha government hasn't executed a prospecting licence (PL) for the Talcher coal block allocated for the project, without which the Tata-Sasol project cannot get forest clearance, environment clearance and the mining lease to develop the block. The World Bank's private sector arm, International Finance Corp., or State Bank of India is likely to finance the Tata-Sasol venture.

"We do not comment on such matters," said a spokesperson for Strategic Energy, in response to ET's queries about the development.

Jindal Synfuels, which is implementing the other coalto-liquid project worth more than Rs 77,000 crore, also sought help from the Cabinet Committee on Investment late last year for help with clearances. Both projects are located in Odisha and are expected to produce the equivalent of 8 million metric tonnes of diesel and naphtha, which could significantly cut India's crude oil import bill.

But the Odisha government's decision to put all clearances for coal blocks allocated between 1993 and 2012 on hold until the Supreme Court-monitored probe into the allotments by the Central Bureau of Investigation is complete, as reported by ET last October, could make it tricky for the Centre to push through these critical projects.

"The petroleum and natural gas ministry has agreed to back the Tata-Sasol joint venture's appeal for an intervention from the cabinet," a senior government official aware of the development said on Friday.

Efforts are also afoot to convince the state government to reconsider its no-go stance on coal blocks, which Odisha had justified by stating that its post-allocation actions "during the pendency of investigation by CBI" into the coal block allocations could also come under the Supreme Court's "scrutiny."

The coal-to-liquid project, which could create around 35,000 jobs in Odisha and boost downstream industries such as chemicals and fertilizers, had got the green signal from the state government's "single window clearance" panel, Strategic Energy has said in its appeal to the Cabinet Committee on Investment that was reviewed by ET.

"SETSPL will have to drill large diameter boreholes to determine the detailed coal properties required for CTL end use... This can only be done after the PL deed is executed by the state. All subsequent milestones like forest and environment clearances and mining lease depend on the PL deed and hence PL execution order from State Government is extremely important for further development of the coal block," the company's told the CCI.

This is not the only project for which the Tata group has sought intervention by the CCI chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Last week, the power ministry also moved an application from Tata Power to help expedite land acquisition for its Rs 12,000 crore supercritical thermal power plant in Jharkhand. The 1,980 MW plant requires more than 1,200 acres of non-forest land, around half of which has been acquired so far.

The Tata group is the latest and probably one of the biggest conglomerates to turn to the cabinet panel for getting stalled investments off the ground, following the likes of Hindalco, Essar, GMR, Avantha group and even foreign investors such as Cairn and Posco.

The CCI has so far facilitated the clearance of all hurdles facing over 300 projects worth more than Rs 6.5 lakh crore since it was set up in January 2013.